Via the Daily Caller, the five most essential, damning minutes from today’s hearing. And Jordan does an expert job framing them. The money line, when Hicks is asked whether he’d ever been told before not to meet with a congressional delegation: “Never.”

I won’t slow you down with further comment. None is needed — except this: Cheryl Mills is no run-of-the-mill State Department apparatchik, even among the top tier. She’s been one of the Clintons’ right-hand men for decades. She worked in Bill’s White House legal office, then as counsel to Hillary’s presidential campaign, then became chief of staff at State when Hillary was appointed secretary. If she’s the right-hand man, what other conclusion is there than that Hillary’s the one who wanted Hicks to keep his mouth shut when meeting with Chaffetz?

One last point, per today’s theme of ghettoized media. As I say, these five minutes are obviously the biggest news to come out of today’s hearings (so far). Note that, then note tomorrow how many news outlets spend any time on them vis-a-vis other ancillary issues from the testimony. For instance, Politico’s lead story as of 2:45 ET is … “Benghazi hearing gets emotional.”

Update: As of 3:30 ET, Hicks just told the panel that he was “effectively demoted” after challenging State’s leadership about its handling of Benghazi. Of course he was. How else could they discredit him later?

Gregory Hicks: State Dept told me not to talk to Congressman Chaffetz about Benghazi:

At today’s Benghazi hearing, Hicks revealed he was told by State that he should not talk to Congressman Chaffetz. Lawyers from State prior to Chaffetz’ visit in Benghazi told Hicks not to speak with Chaffetz.

Jason Chaffetz Emotional Plea To Not Let Benghazi Be Whitewashed By History

You’ll notice that I haven’t included a single video featuring Democrat questioners. That’s because their purpose at the hearing today, was not to help find the truth, it was to protect the regime, and that’s what they did albeit very clumsily at times.

It’s on. As the White House grapples with a growing backlash over its Libya lies and lapses, President Obama’s apologists are gearing up for battle. Put on your hip-waders. Grab those tar buckets. Get ready for Operation Smear Benghazi Whistleblowers.

Whistle-blower Thompson told it was ‘not the right time’ for special FEST team to deploy in #Benghazi crisis

So far I haven’t heard anything that would shake the world (according to Garp, I mean Obama, anyway) to it’s foundation. Pretty much what I expected. It is turning out to be simply a circus to embarrass the Prez and his party, not get at the bottom of the incompetence and treason, except for the specific questioning of Gowdy.

It would be wonderful if those responsible for the criminal negligence (like Hillarious) were held accountable, but don’t look for that to happen – there’s elections to consider, so the important thing here is to look good, not get to the truth.

“So far I haven’t heard anything that would shake the world (according to Garp, I mean Obama, anyway) to it’s foundation.”

Carlos this characterization seems more than a little minimalist. From what I’ve seen in the hearings today they have the foundations for cases of obstruction and perjury against members of the Administration. When a senior member of the administration is being told not to speak to Congressional investigators by his higher ups–well, that’s the same sort of obstruction that Nixon was taken down for and is a direct attack on our system of checks and balances in the United States. If you don’t find that “earth shaking” or the like, well I’d be frightened to see what you would find “earth shaking”.

I think they landed some punches, today. It was her stooges who denied more security. It was her stooges who were threatening Hicks. It was her stooges who changed the talking points.
And Issa promised at the end of the day that there will be more hearings. We need to find out what the Commander in Chief was doing throughout all of this.

My problem isn’t what came out of the hearing today, my problem is, what will be done with it?

Issa’s had just short of 8 months to “find the truth” and hasn’t been able (or is unwilling) to connect all the dots.

Fingerprints of misdeeds are all over everything, but again, the important thing here is to look good, not get to the truth. Yeah, I’m cynical about this, but with good reason. Issa’s also had the same connect-the-dots problem with other “investigations,” too, like Fast and Furious. He seems to have problems reading all the neon signposts put out by witnesses. (Also, notice that, at least in these two cases, there were murders involved. He doesn’t seem to have the bulldog mentality Gowdy does to go after those who either caused those murders or allowed them to happen.)

I’m gonna have to disagree with Carlos here a little. I think the testimony today was critical in breaking the conspiracy wide open. The Republicans HAD to produce something today or they would’ve lost all credibility on the entire issue. The testimony and recounting of the incident by Mr Hicks was “riveting”. The testimony of Mr Nordstrom was compelling, especially when he was asked “what difference did it make?”. I couldn’t help but notice as his testimony went on the anguish on the face of Mr Woods, {sitting behind Nordstrom} the Father of Tyrone Woods as he nodded in approval of what he was saying.

What was revealed today was what many of us how known for years now. There is a common thread running through this administration that absolutely deny the existence of radical islam and refuse to acknowledge the threat that we face. There has been from the very beginning a denial of the obvious with these people. After today there should no doubt that there was a conspiracy and concerted effort on many levels to subvert the truth at any cost. They had to promote the “big lie” to protect their own asses and promote their agenda.

Susan Rice [in my opinion] was a useful dupe, that gave the administration a plausible denial ability. She was given the “revised” talking points and thrown to the wolfs [Sunday Talk Shows}. Nobody from within the inner circle was exposed No. . . .Hillary from State, No Clapper from DNI, No Brennan, or Representative from the White House, No Petraeus. So who did they turn to? They plucked Rice from Turtle Bay in Manhattan who couldn’t have known anything about the situation and pushed her out there to promote their story, the lie.

They knowingly allowed the local radical militia [elements of al qeada] to provide “security” for our State Department Employees, including the President own “Representative” the Ambassador. They [State Department} issued ROE [rules of engagement] for department employees, which included “orders” for no ammunition to be used or carried. No Marine Corp Guards that usually protect our Embassies. Even afterwards Hillary hires a British Security Force {Blue Mountain} and the primary stipulation was that they “could not” be armed. Blue Mountain was the only Security Force willing to take on the job.

dopey libs are oh, so brave when it comes to other peoples lives, especially when it isn’t their ass on the line.

Not only did they promote the “big lie” here, the President and Hillary then spent “One Million Dollars” for a public service announcement that ran in most Arab Countries promoting the same lie about the video. Trying to influence public opinion, knowing all along what the actual, undeniable truth was. That it had nothing to do with the video.

I served and retired from the U.S. Military and served in Special Forces at the beginning of my career. There isn’t one person that I’ve ever served with, that wouldn’t have dropped everything and answered that call, that night, when Americans were in danger. There is no way that Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty would’ve exposed their own positions by “lighting up” targets with lasers, and draw fire on themselves unless they believed there was some support in the area. There is no other reason to light up targets!

It’s disgraceful and as General McInerney said there is a “dereliction of duty” at many levels involved here. There is also perjury, lying to the American people, suppressing testimony, intimidation, conspiracy to subvert, retribution of witnesses and on and on and on.

I’m with you, Geo. The next hearing needs to focus on what the bleep Obama was doing all the hours those men were hung out to dry. I think we already know, but I’d like to hear the admission that he went nighty night early so he could get a good nights rest before his big fundraiser in Las Vegas.

It irked me everytime I heard the expression “lessons learned”. It is not a field trip or a walk-about, it is a murder scene! Gulping lumps in my throat, in the revealing fact of lighting up lazor sites, exposing himself. He was a trained professional, he had to have knowledge of help coming. Who betrayed him?

I agree with Carlos, that Issa has pretty much fired blanks on the hearings that he has held, so far. Yesterday changed a lot and produced some very useful testimony. I think it will encourage others with direct knowledge to come forward and offer more information.

At the very minimum I want to see Hitlery before this committee to answer questions. . . under oath. She testified before the Senate Committee that, “I direct the U.S. response from the State Department.” Oh, really, what response? I also want to see Susan Rice and General Hamm at the very least appearing. From there we can set up the konga line.

Yesterday produced enough holes that the administration would be able to plug very easily.

Who betrayed him? Well, there’s his CO, there’s State, there’s the Pentagon, there’s the DiC (Deceiver-in-Chief), but ultimately, andi lee, it’s the American people who voted for (or at least counted the votes for) that sorry pile of pig poop. If Harry Truman’s statement, “The buck stops here” is true, then you can count this president as a murderous traitor. I have serious doubts whether all the important details will emerge before the end of my lifetime, but I have no doubt he is guilty of a minimum of dereliction of duty (don’t wake me under any circumstances) and probably as much as an accessory to both the murders and the cover-up.

It’s just my personal opinion that there’s nothing that will come of what was learned yesterday or will be learned in the next couple of weeks. I just don’t believe the aim is to take down those responsible (up to and including the president), but to embarrass the Democraps. I can’t see (based upon results of committee hearings so far) that Issa is any more interested in the truth than was Henry Waxman when he held ANY hearing.